Chapter 19: Bloodbath-1
Where?
Alex looked up.
Not here.
Alex turned quickly, and saw The Chopper moving into the distance, away from their fight.
He's fleeing? Alex thought. But he realised the actual motive of the maneuver a second too late.
The Chopper intended to thin their numbers before battling it out with Alex. Before Alex could even move, two more heads had been chopped off, both Giftless.
From the distance, he saw Volkov reacting first. Volkov muttered something, and lunged at the Chopper and swung his arm in a wide arc, not even bothering to close his fist. Following the path of the swing, beautiful flower petals- chrysanthemum,- appeared, looking translucent, almost benign. But Alex knew what they were.
Volkov's 1st Enchantment, Bloody Chrysanthemum. The petals following the swing of his arm, appear temporarily, and dematerialize after a second or two, but in those two seconds they would cut through almost anything one can imagine. Including whatever metal The Chopper's blade was made up of.
The Chopper teleported behind Volkov, avoiding the lethal attack, and just before he could unleash his slash, another Dark Knight swung a dagger at him. He effortlessly dodged and swung upwards, slicing the man in half vertically.
A tragic loss. But it bought them just enough time. Volkov swung out again, and this time the petals connected. The Chopper managed to move out of the way, but not before the attack left a large gaping wound on his torso.
Alex wanted to focus on the Leader first, killing him was more important, but he had a very strong feeling that taking his eyes off that man would not end up well for him. But when has Alex King ever not taken a risk.
He turned his head, all the while ready for an attack. None came.
There were quite the number of causalities, and on both side. The other men who came with the Chopper were nowhere to be seen.
Alex slowly worked his way out of the battlefield, throwing a punch, shouting an order, or occasionally slitting a throat when needed. He found Jack smashing a bigger man's head in, the look on his face unreadable. It had been so long since they were in a proper brawl that Alex had forgotten that Jack could be this tough and violent.
"Jack."
Jack paused, and his opponent slowing collapsed on the ground, clearly unconscious. An enemy approached him, only to be thrown away by a pillar arising from the ground which hit him in the chest.
"I cannot find Andre."
Expression slowly returned to Jack's face, and Alex could see now that Jack had completely forgotten about Andre, and probably everyone else too. He opened his mouth to say something, but it was all drowned out by a defeating crack.
Alex turned sharply to see massive cracks on the Warehouse, its walls crumbling.
That is definitely him.
He broke into a sprint towards the Warehouse, and noticed Bella, Rose and Allie making their way towards it too.
He leaped into the crumbling Warehouse, using the Inner Gate as leverage, and took in the carnage.
Their were a lot of bodies, and the darkness made it impossible to tell how many of them were Dark Knights. In the center of the Warehouse stood Andre, facing the enemy Leader and the child who seemed to never leave his side.
He saw Bella unleash her ability, and a huge amount of steam shot out from seemingly every pore on her skin. Alex covered his nose. Rose and Allie followed suit. It was poisonous gas.
Andre hadn't noticed them, but the kid's hurried movements showed that he had. Alex's reached out with his wires.
The kid's got to go.
Impossibly, the enemy Leader somehow caught the wires on his cane. Their was a terrible tremor, and Alex felt the wires turn to dust.
My wires snapped?
Alex reached for his gun, but decided otherwise. The kid would stop it.
The f***king kid.
"Rose!"
"What now?!" she shouted.
"I'm getting the kid."
"Well its not mine! Why're you telling me?"
"I need support."
Alex rushed in without waiting for a response.
Now that he was closer, he saw that it was Andre who had taken most of the damaged. The kid and the Leader were virtually untouched.
Alex went in for the kill. His wires extended out from his like the tentacles of a squid. The kid extended his right arm, and the wires stopped in their tracks.
Alex too was frozen in place. It was like resisting against an invisible force. An idea popped up in his mind.
He jumped backwards. Out the corner of his eye he saw the Leader's cane approaching his face. He turned his head sharply, barely missing it.
It was a deathblow. Alex raised his gun and shot. As expected, the bullet stopped a few inches away from the Leader's face.
Alex withdrew, just as Andre tried leaped back into the battle.
He met up with Rose, and whispered his mind into her ear, and as he did so, despite the dark, he saw her eyes light up. "That just might work."
There was a sudden cry, and as he turned he realised it was from Andre. His right leg was contorted, bent at an angle that shouldn't even be possible ,definitely broken.
This was getting out of hand. There were sounds of police sirens in the air too. Whatever he had in mind, he had to do it quickly.
He aimed his gun at the Leader, and shot. The bullet stopped a few inches from him, and the sound made him turn his head towards Alex. There was a smile on his face, which said, 'When will you learn?'
But Alex smiled too.
The bullet moved again, embedding itself in the Leader's shoulder.
The battlefield went silent. The Leader fell to the ground, and the kid let out a cry.
Before anyone else could react, Bella rushed in and covered the kid's mouth with her hand. The poisonous gas worked quickly and the kid was out cold.
There was silence. Too much ,actually. There was supposed to be about a hundred men fighting each other out there, yet there was no sound.
Alex heard the sound of a blade being swiped through the air, and as he turned to face the source, he came face to face with The Chopper, standing at the doorway of the Inner Gate, with so much blood on his sword that the damascus pattern on it was no longer visible.
"Jesus Christ..." Bella whispered to his left.
"He's running!" Jack shouted, breaking the silence. Taking advantage of the distraction, the enemy Leader had broke into a run.
In the same moment, The Chopper made his move.
Alex extended his wires, but The Chopper had teleported right in front of him. The blade tore through the wires, passing barely an inch from Alex's face. Bella jumped in from the left, but a single kick to the stomach from the Chopper sent her crashing into the floor.
There were no chances of getting any aid. And he didn't exactly want any. This was Alex's battle.
The Chopper swung at Alex's head. Alex crouched to dodge, and tried to land an uppercut, but the Chopper disappeared from sight. But this time, he was neither behind him ,nor above. This time the Chopper had teleported a few metres away, behind Rose, with his weapon ready to chop her neck clean off.
What happened next was a blur. Alex saw Rose's wires move. He saw them snatching the weapon from The Chopper's hands. He saw them dig into his flesh and draw blood. And he saw the Chopper disappear yet again.
Alex couldn't help but smile.
The Chopper appeared as far as he could from Rose. But he was the one who had brought the fight to her, and now she was not going to back down.
Her wires moved with great ferocity. Before Alex could aim his gun to get in a few surprise shots, the wires were already on him, trying to take his arms.
Alex had his fingers on the trigger, but just as he pulled it , a sudden force hit him from behind, sending the shot towards the ceiling.
What?
There was another. And this time a very sharp pain went up his right arm and left leg, making him kneel. His flesh felt like it was on fire. Then he felt the blood, tricking down his arm and leg.
He heard Andre shout before shielding Alex's body with his back. "Allie! Albie! There's a shooter! Captain's been shot!"
Alex felt a sudden burst of rage. Maybe it was because of the fact that he was just shot. Maybe because he was interrupted just before finishing an opponent.
He sent his wires swirling across the room just as The Chopper disappeared from Rose's grasp.
"Nobody move!" He shouted.
His wires felt a new body touch them, and Alex grabbed and pulled without thinking. He had made the right choice. His wires brought The Chopper right infront of him. Alex slammed his body into the ground with so much force that he shattered the concrete floor. Then, in the same breath, Alex smashed his fist into the man's jaw, ignoring the pain.
He saw The Chopper's eyes go up in their sockets.